Cars, buses, trucks, motorcycles or any other kind of vehicles generally comprise a plurality of lamps, such as headlamps, tail lamps or signal lamps, each covered by a transparent or translucent lens. Each lamp comprises a housing, a lens, a reflector and a lamp bulb. Adjacent lamps are often grouped together as a single lighting unit. Yet, the interior surface of a vehicle lens is rarely flat and almost always comprises a pattern of optical dispersion elements. The role of the dispersion elements is to provide an enhanced and more uniform distribution of the light.
Most of the lenses, such as the lenses for the tail lamps and signal lamps, are made of a plastic material which comes in three main groups of colours, namely red, amber and clear. The lens of a headlamp is generally made of clear glass. All these lenses may be damaged by a shock due to a small rock or the like thrown by a preceding vehicle and hitting the surface thereof. A damage may also result from a traffic accident or vandalism. Once a lens is damaged, the owner who wishes to correct the problem has hitherto to replace the whole lens or worse, replace the whole lamp or lighting unit if the lens is not individually available. The damaged lens, lamp or lighting unit is then thrown away, even if the damage to the lens is minor and the structure of the lamp or lighting unit is intact. The replacement of a damaged lens, lamp or lighting unit may be very expensive, depending on the models. Yet, some lenses, lamps or lighting units may not be readily available or even not available anymore in the case of older vehicles.
In order to avoid an expensive replacement of a lens, lamp or lighting unit, some owner uses a translucid tape to cover the damaged section of a lens. This latter solution is however not aesthetical and is only a sort-term solution to the problem. Moreover, the light distribution with a tape is less efficient.
It is thus an object of the present invention to provide a simple and inexpensive method of partially or completely rebuilding a damaged vehicle lens, particularly a lens having an interior surface with a pattern of optical dispersion elements. This method reduces the costs of repairing a damaged lens and provides an alternative to destruction of reusable parts, which would otherwise be sent to a dump site. The method can be used to replace a portion of the lens or the whole lens and can be carried out locally whenever necessary.
Accordingly, there is provided a method of rebuilding a damaged lens of a vehicle lamp, the lens having a side comprising a pattern of optical dispersion elements and being connected to a housing, the method comprising the steps of:
delimiting a damaged section to be removed from an undamaged section of the lens; PA1 removing the damaged section from the housing; PA1 providing a flat thermoplastic patch having a size and a colour corresponding to that of the damaged section; PA1 grooving a side of the patch to duplicate the pattern of optical dispersion elements of the damaged section; and PA1 fixing the patch to the housing in replacement of the damaged section. PA1 removing the damaged lens from the housing; PA1 providing a flat thermoplastic patch having a size and a colour corresponding to that of the damaged lens; PA1 grooving a side of the patch to duplicate the pattern of optical dispersion elements of the damaged lens; and PA1 fixing the patch to the housing in replacement of the damaged lens.
There is also provided a method of rebuilding a damaged lens of a vehicle lamp, the lens having a side comprising a pattern of optical dispersion elements and being connected to a housing, the method comprising the steps of: